Clothes drying bars



Aug. 27, 1957 W. L. HAMMER CLOTHES DRYING BARS Filed Oct. 4, 1954 IN VENTOR.

771m 4mm ATTORNE'VS.

United States Patent tOfiice 2,804,214 CLOTHES DRYING B RS. William L.Hammer, wauwatosg wis Application October 4, 1954, Serial No. 459,972 lClaim. (Cl. 211.-,106)

This invention relates to improvements in clothes drying bars, and. moreparticularly. to a. clothes drying bar adapted to be associated with.the shower curtain rod over a bathtub or the like. v

Many bathtubs have shower installations, and mounted over the outer rimof the bathtub is airfod from which a shower curtain is suspended todrape. into the tub, to confine the water from the shower. When theshower is not in use it is customary to slide the shower curtain alongthe overhead curtain rod to an out of the way position. Such showercurtain rods are frequently employed as hangers for the drying ofwearing apparel which has been laundered, and as the shower curtain rodis usually vertically alined with the outer rim of the bathtub, waterfrom the laundered garments hung from the shower curtain rod may dripexteriorly of the tub or onto the shower curtain.

The present invention has as its primary object the provision of anauxiliary clothes drying bar which may be associated with a showercurtain rod over a conventional bathtub but positioned in a manner to beout of the way and to confine drippage from the suspended launderedgarments into the tub.

A further object of the invention is to provide a clothes drying bar forassociation with a shower curtain rod which will prevent direct contactbetween wet garments and the metal shower curtain rod, therebyeliminating the possibility of rust formations on the shower curtain rodand the staining of the laundered garments.

A further object of the invention is to provide an auxiliary clothesdrying bar which may be supported in an elevated position transverselyover a bathtub between the shower curtain rod and the wall, and which isreadily adjustable to clampingly fit between the wall adjacent the inneredge of the bathtub and the shower curtain.

A further object of the invention is to provide a clothes drying .bar ofthe character described in which the clothes supporting extent isslightly spiralled in formation to prevent the sliding therealong ofgarments mounted on said portion of the bar even though it be at aslight inclination.

A further object of the invention is to provide a clothes drying bar ofthe character described arranged for association with a shower curtainrod and which, when not in use, may be depended from an end portion ofthe shower curtain rod in an out of the Way position without beingdisassembled.

' or rim of the bathtub or which formsthe inner wall of Cit A furtherobject of the invention is to provide a clothes drying bar which isinexpensive to manufacture, which is neat and attractive in appearance,which is easy to mount and adjust without the use of tools, and which iswell adapted for the purposes described.

With the above and other objects in view, the invention consists of theimproved clothes drying bar, and its parts and combinations as set forthin the claim, and all equivalents thereof.

In the accompanying drawing in which the same reference charactersindicate the same parts in the several views:

Fig. 1 is a fragmentary perspective view of a shower curtain rod spacedfrom a wall with the improved clothes drying bar mounted between theshower curtain rod'andthe wall; and V Fig. 2 is a side view of thespiralbar disengaged from thewall and detached from its mounting noose.

Referring now more particularly to the drawing, it

will-appear that the numeral 5 designates an eleyated horizontallyextending rod for a shower bath curtain; which rod is of circularcross-section and is'prefe'rably' formed of metal. The shower curtainrod S-isfigidl'y mounted over the outer edge or mud a bathtubor at theentrance to a showerstallandis opposite averticalinner wall 6 whichextends upwardly from the inner edge a, shower stall. V

The present invention relates primarily to a,clothes drying bar 7 which.is adapted to be suspended from the, shower curtain rod 5-, at rightangles thereto, and to con tact, at its inner end, the vertical wall 6.The clothes drying. bar 7. is shown inrdetail in Fig. 2 andit ispreferabl y formed of chrome plated spring steel which has been bentinto spiral formation.

As shown at 7' in the drawing, the outer end portion of the clothesdrying bar 7 has relatively large, closely adjacent convolutionsdecreasing in size toward the intermediate portion of the rod with ahook 8 formed at the outer end portion of the bar section 7'. From theintermediate portion of the bar inwardly, represented by the numeral 7",the spiralled extent of the bar is such that the convolutions are verygradual and on a substantially lesser pitch than the convolutions in theportions 7 merely forming undulations in said bar portion 7". Inpractice, the portion 7" of the bar is customarily utilized for thesupport of laundered and damp garments. The extreme inner end portion ofthe bar section 7" has fast thereon a cylindrical bumper 9 whose noseportion 9 is pointed, the bumper being preferably formed of rubber or asimilar resilient material.

For the purpose of depending the clothes drying bar 7 from the showercurtain rod 5, a noose 10 is provided which is formed of a doubledlength of rope, leather or other flexible plastic material closed atboth ends with one doubled end carrying a metallic crimping band 11 toprovide an attaching eye 12. The major extent of the noose, beyond theeye 12 and crimping band 11, is adapted to be wrapped about the showercurtain rod 5 in the manner shown in Fig. 1 with the eyed end of thenoose being adjustably pulled through the rod engaging loop thus formed,and the eye 12 is then engaged with the hooked portion 8 of the section7 of the drying bar 7 and threaded inwardly on the convolutions to aproper position of support, thereby providing adjustable and detachablemeans for depending the enlarged outer end of the clothes drying bar 7from the shower curtain rod.

The bumper equipped end 9 of the clothes drying bar 7 is wedginglyengageable with the surface portion of the wall 6 in the manner shown inFig. 1 and is preferably initially engaged with the wall at an elevationslightly above that of the shower curtain rod 5. The wedging engagementcan be increased by turning the outer end portion 7 of the bar 7 in themanner of a screw, during which adjustment the eyed end of the noosewill also shift along the portion 7' to a proper convolution. After therough adjustment is made by thus turning the bar 7, the bumper equippedend of the bar may be forced downwardly to a desired elevation on thewall 6 which will place the spirally convolved portion 7' of the barunder compression.

With the auxiliary clothes drying bar suspended from Patented Aug. 27,1957 a shower curtain rod and engaged with an inner vertical wall in themanner described, the portion 7 of the bar is readily available for thesupport of laundered garments which may dri'p into the bathtubyor'ontothe drain floor of a shower stall.

The gradual spiralled undulations in the bar portion 7" provide anotching or shouldered efiect which prevent the garments or hangers onwhich they are disposed from sliding toward the spiral screw portion 7of the bar.

While the clothes drying bar 7 has been illustrated and described asbeing depended below the shower curtain rod 5 by means of the noose 10which is preferable because there will then be no metal to metal contactas being the shower curtain rod 5 and the drying bar 7, it can, ifdesired, be mounted over the shower curtain rod 5 by means of the nooseattachment.

When the improved clothes drying bar is not in use, a few reverse turnson the portion 7' of the bar 7 will ease the compression and permitdisengagement of the bumper equipped end of the bar from the wall 6.Then,

the entire assemblage may be slid along the shower curtain rod 5 to anout of the way position, or the bar 7 may be disengaged from the noose,or the entire assemblage may be quickly disengaged from the showercurtain rod and stored.

,end of the bumper and having its other end adapted to extend away fromthe wall, and suspending means for said other end having a loop, saidlast-mentioned end of the rod being twisted in the form of a screw andwithin the loop whereby the loop may be progressively moved, away fromthe wall from one convolution of the twist to another to place the rodunder compression between said The improved clothes drying bar forshower curtain suspending means and wall whereby said bumper ismaintained in position against downward slippage on the wall.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS1,293,953 Shoemaker Feb. 11, 1919 1,575,963 Bispham Mar. 9, 19261,924,096 Adams Aug. 29, 1933 1,966,283 Brody July 10, 1934 2,513,619Bennett July 4, 1950 2,522,174 Hermsmeyer Sept. 12, 1950 2,639,816 FoggMay 26, 1953

